I’ve always felt that kids should be immersed in nature regularly; let them play in the dirt, run in the forest, splash in the stream. In addition to the apparent benefits of reduced incidence of allergies, I believe that getting a little bit of the outdoors on a regular basis helps maintain a healthy life equilibrium.
Though individuals with allergies lived throughout the study area, the authors found that allergies were tied to the amount of biodiversity around the teenagers’ homes; the more forest and agricultural land, the lower the prevalence of allergies. On the other hand, kids living near bodies of water or in urban centers had significantly higher levels of allergies.
[via: Science Magazine]